The Zend PHP I: Foundations (i5/OS Version) course is designed to provide ILE programmers with a solid foundation in the PHP language. This course guides you through the basics of PHP with an experiential approach, filled with numerous examples and hands-on exercises, and makes frequent reference to the similarities and differences between the PHP and RPG languages, for better comprehension. You will also learn about the exciting new 5250 Bridge for your legacy content, as well as tools for i5 system programmers, such as the PHP i5 Toolkit and DB2 extensions. A coding project at the end of the course serves to reinforce the concepts taught and your proficiency in working within PHP.
Audience:
This course is designed for experienced i5 system programmers who currently utilize RPG (or COBOL), and want to explore using PHP to create web-based application front ends for existing RPG applications or begin the track to become PHP programmers.
Pre-requisite(s):
Active i5/OS programming experience (ILE language DB2 experience). Basic knowledge of HTML, please see: Course Note.
Objectives:
To learn the basics of the PHP programming language and its relation to the i5/OS system
Topics Include:
• Why use PHP : What is PHP, Why use it, Benefits for RPG programmers, Connecting to a DB2 data source & accessing data demonstration
• Zend Core Management: What an ILE programmer needs to know about Zend Core
• Development Tools: Increasing code efficiency & performance through Zend Studio for i5, including code completion, syntax highlighting, context sensitive templates for the PHP i5 Toolkit, DB2 extensions, 5250 bridge
• Language Basics: Syntax, Quotes, Comments, Data Types
• Variable Basics: Numbers, Constants, Variables, Strings, and Arrays
• Control Flow Basics: Operators, Conditionals, Loops
• Function Basics: Functions, Libraries, Array functions, File Handling functions
• Programming Basics: Best Practices, Debugging, Introduction to HTML
• Web Basics: Introduction to Server Communications, Sessions, Security
• Database Basics: Introduction focused on how databases relate to PHP and websites
• Application Basics: Course project
Course Note:
Basic knowledge of HTML is critical to understanding the conversion of RPG programs to web-based. However, this is outside of the focus of this course. For Participants without this pre-requisite knowledge, we strongly advise you to take advantage of free online tutorials (for example at: http://www.w3courses.com) or reference books such as “Sams Teach Yourself HTML in 10 Minutes”.
Course Information:
Duration: 18 hours – Online; 3 days – Classroom